codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Desktop update breaks loading existing chats with saved git directives on Windows

Environment

• OS: Windows
• Codex Desktop package: OpenAI.Codex_26.513.3673.0_x64__2p2nqsd0c76g0
• Codex Desktop version: 26.513.3673.0
• Bundled CLI: codex-cli 0.130.0-alpha.5

Problem

After updating Codex Desktop, existing chats are still present on disk but some older chats fail to load/render in the app.

Evidence

• Session files still exist under C:\Users\<user>\.codex\sessions.
• session_index.jsonl is still present and includes the affected thread IDs.
• The Desktop log shows a renderer error boundary while opening an older thread:

invalid syntax at line 1 col 5:

1  cwd="C:\Users\<user>\OneDrive\Documents\New project 2\jfk-research-center"
       ^

Likely cause

Older assistant messages include saved app directives like:

::git-create-branch{cwd="C:\Users\<user>\OneDrive\Documents\New project 2\jfk-research-center" branch="..."}

The updated renderer/parser appears to parse these saved directives differently and crashes on the Windows path, breaking backward compatibility with existing chat history.

Expected behavior

Old chats should load even if historical app directives are malformed or use Windows paths. At worst, the directive should render as plain text or be ignored.

Actual behavior

The chat route hits a renderer error boundary and the conversation cannot be loaded normally.

Impact

User-visible loss of access to existing chats after update, despite chat data still being present on disk.

Notes

I have intentionally not attached full session files because they can contain prompt history, local paths, repo names, and tool output. The excerpt above is redacted to avoid exposing user-specific data.